Shooting of N.Y. Police is a Tragedy

The volleys of political attack are flying back and forth.  Protests against police shooting people in questionable circumstances versus the murder of police officers.  

My stepson works in Stockton.  He is a fireman and EMT.  He tells us about the climate down there, the mean streets.

He talks about the filfth, the depressing circumstances, the crime, the violence.

His  former girlfriend, also an EMT in Stockton, actually was part of a "game" that counted the murders and bet that Stockton would beat other cities for the most homicides.

Most of these homicides were by firearm.

So the African-Americans protest along with liberal whites about the alarming rate of police initiated shootings.  And Fox News rails about the shooting of the two New York policemen casting blame on the liberals for supporting the protests.  

And we all scream at each other, vying for political advantage with a general population that more and more doesn't give a damn.

That's right:  doesn't give a damn.  In the recent elections, people did not show up to vote.  The conservative base did show up some and the result is a more conservative representation than really exists in the country.

So we will be entertained by their high jinks for a couple years, alientating and intensifying the depression of the general population that things are so wrong nobody can do anything.

And what is wrong?  There are places in this country that no white person would go into.  There are places in this country that no person of color dare traverse.  The penalty for this is violence and possible death.

We all know this,  We also all know that there are millions of young people of color incarcerated for everything from shoplifting to getting high on marijuana (that is legal in several states) and have been recruited into street gangs who exist to kill and intimidate.  

In short the mean streets are getting meaner.  The homocide rate in Stockton will probably set another record in 2015.  

And it seems that nobody gives a damn.  

And this is by design.   Many conservatives are using the "there is no racism, its all fixed" and liberals who brag about the "growth of the African American Middle Class", have chosen to ignore the issue.

The issue that still plagues America is gun violence coupled with racism.   And, since it now is anchored by the incarceration epidemic that has seen the jailing and criminalization of millions of people, certain areas of the country are getting to be shooting galleries.

Police and Firemen have to patrol these mean streets.  These streets, of inner Stockton for example, none of us will go into.  But Police and Fire personnel do everyday.

And there is great danger.  And they sometimes shoot first and ask questions later.

And that is the point.   The issue is NOT that police are inhuman animals shooting children.  The issue is racism is still very much with us all; coupled with a gun culture that has everyone armed.

You reap what you sow according to the old saying.  Violence begets violence.  

Guns are easy to get.  Movies and video games glorify gun violence.  Children learn that problems can be solved with a gun.   And we jail people of color for practically spitting on the sidewalk, put them into jails where gangs rule; and then wonder when people are released that they are much "meaner" than when they went in.

We have all created this.  We perpetuate it when we turn on MSNBC or Fox and revel in the opinion that supports our personal stereotypes:  that cops are evil, or that black men are evil.

And the society spins further into the vortex of despair and violence.

Merry fricking Christmas.